Ragan Finishes 20th at Lowe's Motor Speedway
October 18, 200910:43 AM
Concord, N.C. (October 17, 2009) – Lowe’s Motor Speedway is a hometown track for all of the competitors and welcome break from the grueling travel schedule the long season entails. With only a few races left, Ragan and crew were looking for a solid finish in front family, friends and fans. A loose handling racecar throughout the night caused some struggles for the team, and a flat tire cost them a lap, but no one gave up and Ragan battled his way back to the lead lap. Ragan ultimately finished on the lead lap in the 20th position, while Jimmie Johnson went on to win the NASCAR Banking 500.
With a Saturday night race, the weekend started on Thursday for everyone, including Mother Nature who once again brought rain to a NASCAR weekend. Luckily the rains only delayed practice and qualifying and everyone was able to take to the track. The UPS Ford was loose in practice and the handling conditions continued into qualifying. Ragan maneuvered his loose handling Ford around the track to earn a 29th-place starting position. Saturday’s practice sessions brought much of the same, so Ragan and crew went into the 334-lap race knowing they would be in for some adjustments.
From the drop of the green flag, Ragan slowly began to pick up positions on the track, but reported back to crew chief Jimmy Fennig that he needed his car to cut better through the center of the turns. Just 34 laps into the race NASCAR threw the caution flag for rain and Ragan took advantage of the break in racing action for four tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment. The rain passed by quickly and the field was back to racing.
Over the middle part of the race, Ragan made stops for similar adjustments until the set of tires he was given under caution on lap 165 didn’t agree with his car. Ragan dropped from 15th to 23rd in 20 laps and thought he had a bad set of tires. Luckily the caution came out for debris on the track from the No. 42 of Montoya, and Ragan has able to pit. It turned out that one of his tires was going flat, and that was the issue that had forced him to lose track position. With four fresh Goodyear tires he was set to continue.
The handling conditions continued to plague Ragan and just has he was coming in for green flag service on lap 243, he was passed by the leader. Ragan raced his way up to the “lucky dog” position, and his teammate Carl Edwards’ misfortune on lap 304, benefited Ragan. Edwards had engine issues on the restart on lap 304 bringing the caution out and putting Ragan as the “lucky dog.” Ragan was back on the lead lap in the 20th position and with nothing to lose pitted for four tires and fuel. Ragan survived two late race cautions to ultimately end the NASCAR Banking 500 20th.
“Our UPS Ford was real good at the beginning of the race,” said Ragan. “We started further back than we would have liked, but we were able to move up pretty quick. We didn’t have to make too many adjustments early in the race because the car was pretty neutral. Just around halfway, the car felt different after making a trip down pit road. It felt like there was something wrong with the tires, so we came in during the next caution period and switched them out. Jimmy said that it looked like our right front was going down, and that cost us track position because it was much more difficult to drive the car with a bad tire on it. We just couldn’t get back up in the field after that issue. Our UPS pit crew was great in the pits, but we just didn’t get the finish we wanted.”
NEXT UP:
TUMS Fast Relief 500
0.526-miles Martinsville Speedway
Martinsville, Virg.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
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